I Saw The Devil  is the gold standard of revenge flicks.  There’s nothing that compares to this film.  Nothing.  The only film which comes close is Oldboy.

One day, Joo-yeon, daughter of a retired police chief becomes the victim of serial killer Kyung-chul (Min-Sik Choi) and is found dead in a horrific state.  Her fiance Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee), a top secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself.  He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take bloody vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself to get this monstrous and inhumane killer.

I really don’t want to say too much to spoil the film for anyone who might be reading this.  There aren’t any real twists or surprises, but I think it’s better to go in only knowing that you’re watching another brilliant South Korean revenge flick, and let the events hit you like a battering ram.  Filled with fantastic acting, great fight sequences and a shit ton of blood and gore.  A great thriller/drama that’s also one of the most breathtakingly beautiful films I’ve seen a long time.  It’s that fucking good.

The Raid looks really fucking cool.  I have no idea what it’s about, but it looks cool.

Title: A Bittersweet Life

Written and Directed by: Jee-woon Kim

Initial Flickchart position:  #218 of 1403 overall.  My #6 film, of 51, from the year 2005.

What It’s About:
Sunwoo is no ordinary hotel manager. Decisive and efficient, he’s also the right hand man of underworld boss Kang. But tough guy Kang has a weakness; his young girlfriend Heesoo. Suspecting she’s unfaithful, Kang orders Sunwoo to take care of the problem.

General Comments:
Yet another superbly great Korean crime drama.  Everything about it is so beautiful, stylish and poetic.  There really is nothing else to say.

Watch A Bittersweet Life because it it’s further proof that no-one does crime dramas like the Koreans.  It’s a genre they’ve made all their own.

Rating:  7.5/10

Title: Secret Reunion

Directed by: Hun Jang

Written by: Joo-ho Kim and Kwang-young Choi and Hun Jang

Initial Flickchart position:  #339 of 1400 overall.  My #35 film, of 81, from the year 2010.

What It’s About:
A North Korean spy and a former South Korean agent form a tense partnership.

General Comments:
Another good Korean flick, this time a spy/action drama.  Pretty much all aspects of the film were good, although I think the fight scenes were a little underwhelming.  The gunplay was done well but the actual fist fights just weren’t that great.  There’s not much more to say about the film really.

Watch Secret Reunion because it’s yet another good Korean film, and it’s one that doesn’t end on a downer.

Rating:  6.5/10

Title: The Chaser

Directed by: Hong-jin Na

Written by: Won-Chan Hong, Shinho Lee & Hong-jin Na

Initial Flickchart position:  #294 of 1395 overall.  My #17 film, of 63, from the year 2008 (but both rankings might be too high).

What It’s About:
Joong-ho is a dirty detective turned pimp in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts.  While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by a same client whom one of his girls is meeting with right now.

General Comments:
There’s never a happy ending in Korean thrillers.  Never.  I should know this by now but I guess I’m just tuned to the Hollywood way and then I’m always surprised when a film doesn’t end on a positive note.  Still, there’s no denying that the Koreans make really good crime/drama/thrillers, and this is another good entry.  It’s not really a revenge flick so to compare it to Oldboy or I Saw The Devil may not to totally fair, but it has to be said that it’s nowhere near as good as those two films.  Hell, The Man From Nowhere is better too.

Watch The Chaser because it’s a pretty decent crime thriller and it’s nice to take a break from the Korean revenge films, no matter how brilliant they are.

Rating:  6.5/10

Title: Dogtooth

Written and Directed by: Giorgos Lanthimos

Initial Flickchart position:  #331 of 1390 overall.  My #29 film, of 80, from the year 2009 (but both of these rankings seem too low).

What It’s About:
Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that might as well be on another planet.

General Comments:
It’s sort of an erotic psychological drama that makes you realise the whole idea of the family unit can lead to some messed up shit.  I have to be honest, I’d read some bits and pieces about Dogtooth that never really went into what the film was about but just said how amazing it is.  And holy balls it really is amazing.  I know my rankings on Flickchart aren’t right because Dogtooth should definitely be ranking higher than it currently is.  I’m at a loss for words.  Everyone in the film does a fantastic job, and it’s shot in such a way that the whole thing feels like a mix between a family home movie and a dream.

Watch Dogtooth because it tells a story that I’ve never seen before.  It’s also got something for everyone; sex, barking, VCR’s, nudity, violence, drama, cats, incest, airplanes, licking, swimming, dancing, milk.

Rating:  7.5/10

Title: Los Cronocrimenes

Written and Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo

Initial Flickchart position:  #345 of 1389 overall.  My #29 film, of 63, from the year 2007.

What It’s About:
A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour.  Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.

General Comments:
I’m posting this late not because I didn’t watch it yesterday, but because I fell asleep at 4:00pm whilst watching it yesterday and then woke up this morning.  So technically I haven’t broken my string of consecutive days watching films.  Anyway, onto the movie.  Time travel is one of my favourite genres, or sub-genres, and when they’re done well they’re a total mind fuck.  Los Cronocrimenes (aka Timecrimes) is really well done.  The time travel aspect really is a self-contained loop with no explanation as to why it starts.  I guess it’s just destined to play out for Hector at that point in his life, with that smoking hot chick being the only real casualty.

Watch Los Cronocrimenes because it’s a very well done sci-fi/time travel/thriller, and will mess with your mind if you try and figure out the inevitable paradox that all time travel films have, how did the loop begin? Avoid the trailer embedded below if you want to avoid spoilers, since it basically shows every major point of the film.

Rating:  7/10

Title: Dabangg

Directed by: Abhinav Kashyap

Written by: Abhinav Kashyap and Dilip Shukla

Current Flickchart position:  #470 of 1324 overall.  My #36 film, of 52, from the year 2010.

What It’s About:
Set in Laalgurj, Uttar Pradesh, the film tells the story of Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) who is a fearless but currupt police officer.  He had a very bitter childhood when his father passed away, after which his mother remarried.  After Chulbul meets Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha) he starts to see life more positively and also comes to recognise the value of family.

General Comments:
Dabangg is the very first Bollywood film I’ve ever seen and I’m kinda impressed by it.  There’s very little in the way of good story, although the same can be said about the vast majority of Hollywood action flicks, but it’s just so much fun to look at.  Salman Khan, an actor I’ve not surprisingly never heard of, is absolutely magnetic when he’s on screen.  God damn he’s one cool guy.  I loved the mass choreography when one of the main characters breaks into a song.  It’s just pure eye candy.

The fight sequences are pretty decent with a mixture of Transporter-like fights, Kung-Fu wire work, and Matrix style camera pans and slo-mo.  There’s also the occasional bit of added violence in the injuries caused which actually came as a real surprise to me, although somewhat strangely there’s no swearing of any kind.  The final fight is a little homo-erotic with one guy taking his shirt off and the other guy hulking out and having it fly off, but props for the way the bad guy gets killed.  I’ve never seen a guy killed by making him suck on a tractor exhaust.

Rating:  6/10

Title:  I Saw The Devil

Directed by:  Ji-Woon Kim

Written by:  Hoon-jung Park

Current Flickchart position:  #210 of 1316 overall.  My #7 film in 2010.

What It’s About:
Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi) is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure.  He has committed infernal serial murders in diabolic ways that one cannot even imagine and his victims range from young women to children.  One day, Joo-yeon (San-ha Oh), daughter of a retired police chief becomes his prey and is found dead in a horrific state.  Her fiance Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee), a top secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself.  He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take bloody vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself to get his revenge.

General Comments:
What a fucking gloriously great South Korean ultraviolence revenge flick that makes the point that there is no winner when it comes to revenge.  Fantastic acting, great fight sequences and a shit ton of blood and gore.  A great thriller/drama that’s also one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve seen a long time.

Rating:  7.5/10